Captured: A day in the life of
by Looneylune
Summary: A new series from the AU of Captured. Follow each of the trolls as they live through a day in the Skaia Center for Mental Rehabilitation. Today is the assessment day, and if they pass, they might get to go home, so everyone is on edge. (Each chapter will follow a different troll, on the same day, but different perspective. Karezi and Solradia will occur, and some more angst.)


A day in the life of...

Chapter 1

Karkat

(AN: Hello everybody, I'm back and hopefully better than ever. I've been reading captured again, and, despite still being in love with the whole premise, I feel like I could of done a lot better. there was a lot of typos (mostly because I lost my use of microsoft Word and my hard-drive crashed), and I didn't like the way I portrayed the characters. Also, I feel like I sugar coated a lot of it. Like, they're in a mental hospital. They all have a reason to be in the hospital, but I rarely showed it. They just acted as the characters normally would. While that's not neccesarilly a bad thing, I feel like this AU requires those changes in the character. Anyway, to the point, this fanfic is sort of to redeem myself in my own eyes, and to give back to everyone who loved the original story. There will be 12 chapters, one in the perspective of each troll, the same day. Anyway, this authors note is already long enough, so enjoy the story! /AN)

There was a knock on the door a few minutes passed 6:30; 6:34, to be precise. Despite being a resident at Skaia center for a good while, Karkat still hadn't adjusted to the early wake-up calls.

The nurse passed and gave Karkat his morning medication, and he flopped on his bed once again. He had almost returned to a peaceful sleep when the curtains were ripped open by Karkat's loving roommate.

" Captor, you blithering feculent shithole, close the goddamn curtains, it's too fucking early for me to put up with any bullshit that you or any other dickweasels in this forsaken h-" Karkat began to screech, but was int erupted by Sollux.

"KK, get up. Big day."

"Why, oh dear Psychedelic Spaz Maggot, is it such a special day where I can't sleep for another fucking split second?" Karkat hissed.

"KK, calm down. Do you remember what today ith?"

"It's Friday the whatever of whatever Perigee of whatever Sweep. Frankly, I really couldn't give a single blistering fuck about today, so shut you lisping face and-"

"It's the latht day of the Perigee. I gueth you haven't been here long enough to know the thignificanthe of that." Sollux remarked, ignoring Karkat's comment about his speech impediment. "It'th the thort of athethment day."

"What?" Karkat didn't understand, his temper starting to flare up.

"Athethment day. You know, evaluation, apraithal, judgement," Karkat snickered as Sollux spoke, "Oh, shut the fuck up, KK. Today ith when all the doctorth and pthycologithtth and that dickhead chairman talk to uth and atheth our thituation to thee if we should thtay here or if we can go home."

Karkat sighed and shrugged. "Well fuck. Just another day of being poked and prodded like a grotesque, outlandish lab rodent for the sake of science and my own, quote-unquote, good." His arms thrashed about as he spoke to show his frustration.

Sollux shrugged. "It'th not ath bad ath you'd expect it to be, but get up. They expect you to be up and about by breakfatht." Sollux was already up and dressed. "I'm waiting for you, tho make trackth." Sollux disappeared into the bathroom.

Digging through his dresser, Karkat picked out his clothes for the day. He only had two shirts, both of which were the same, so his wardrobe never changed. His family didn't have much money, so new clothes were never the priority.

Karkat always wore long sleeve shirts. His wrists would reveal his blood colour; His most guarded secret that he would conceal under any circumstance. He always needed to hide it, he always needed to deny and put up a strong mask to make it seem like nothing was wrong. His anger blossomed from how people treated him. He needed to put up barriers between him and the world, to save himself and others. He was different, and he hated himself for her. He was a freak in the eyes of the world, and he knew it. People were afraid of him, people made fun of him. His family thought he was a disgrace from his childhood to the day they drove him to the hospital. He was used to the pain, it didn't bother him anymore. His long sleeves would hide his secret from the world, and he would be safe for another day.

After shimmying into his pants and lacing up his shoes, he banged on the bathroom door.

"I'm out of here, douchecanoe." He sneered at Sollux. Opening the door, he made his way down the hallway. Shortly, Sollux followed him, silently. They continued down as other residents exited their rooms and made their way down the stairs. The smell of pancakes and breakfast meats could be detected as they got closer to the dining hall. People were slowly streaming in for their morning meal.

After grabbing his breakfast, Karkat took a seat at his group's regular table. Without realizing, he sat where Sollux usually sat. When Sollux arrived with his usual pitiful-sized meal, he stopped in his tracks and stared at Karkat.

"What are you doing?" He spoke in a cold, monotone voice.

"What?" Karkat hadn't realized what he was doing.

"You... Are in my 'th where I thit every day at every meal thince I've been here, long before you've been here, and it ith where I will thit until I am done in the hell-hole that ith thith hothpital." Sollux hissed.

"Calm down, Captor. Just sit somewhere else, it doesn't matter." Karkat became prodding his pancakes, not even acknowledging Sollux with a glance.

"That... Ith wear I thit." Sollux said through clenched fangs. "MOVE."

Aradia, who had sat moments before the confrontation, leaned to Karkat and whispered. "Everyone is really on edge on assessment day, you better not test anyone!"

Begrudgingly, Karkat moved, leaving Sollux to his spot, and he took his own seat. He finished his breakfast, and avoided eye contact with Sollux, who wasn't eating much. Aradia whispered to him, trying to motivate him to finish his food.

Terezi had been watching Karkat eat the entire time, barely touching her food. This distressed him. She would occasionally giggle, or take a bite of her food, but she rarely broke her gaze. He felt like she knew something. The thought of his blood colour crossed his mind, and he was uneasy. He tried his best to ignore her all breakfast.

After an awkward breakfast, Karkat went to put away his plate. He was then grabbed from behind.

"Hey Karkles!" It was Terezi. Karkat Jumped and blushed bright red. He hid his face from Terezi.

"Wh-What do you want?!" He growled.

"C'mon, let's go to the rec room! Today they want to keep us all busy so the doctor can come in and talk to each of us! There's arts and crafts, movies, it's fun!" She laughed, with hints of flirtiness in her voice.

"Uh, uh.." Karkat paused. "_Get it together, Karkat. Don't let anyone see." _Once sure his bright red face had faded, Karkat turned to Terezi, once again wearing his cold-blooded mask. "Sure, whatever, let's go." He brushed Terezi off of his arm, despite him wanting to hold her closer. He tried ignore her, but she made it difficult.

"I don't know how many of these days I've been through. How long have I even been here?" She cackled lightly as she babbled on. She talked the whole way to the rec room.

They entered the pastel yellow room, and a few other residents sat idly, chatting, reading, or

doing some crafts. Today's craft was collages, although Jake called it _découpage _in an attempted to sound cultured. Some other craft supplies were lying around. You could see Nepeta in the corning, frantically swatting at a ball of yarn. A whitecoat walked in and told her to stop, seizing her play-thing.

Karkat took a seat at one of the many tables they had brought in. At the table were a few other patients; Kanaya, who had cut out a few outfits from different magazines, and was gluing them to different models, and Eridan. No one was quite sure what Eridan was putting on his collage, but they assumed it would make more sense when it was finished.

Karkat was handed a few magazines and some scissors, but his crafting was short lived.

A whitecoat walked in the room. "Karkat Vantas?" he asked.

"Yeah, what?" Karkat grumbled.

"It's time for your checkup." He flipped through the pages. "Please head to the psychiatric bay."

-Moments Later-

Karkat knocked on the door of the psychologists office. He was surprised when a man's voice said "Come in." He opened the door to see a man dressed all in white, except for a green dress shirt and bow-tie.

"Hello, you must be Karkat." he said. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm ."

"Where is Dr. Lalonde?" Karkat questioned in a cold voice.

"You see, I do all of the assessments. It's to get a different, unbiased opinion on the patients improvement. I also do the medical examinations."

"Oh, so you're a doctor AND a psychologist! Whoop dee-FREAKING-doo!" Karkat griped. jotted a few notes down on his clipboard, and Karkat stared daggers at him.

"Now, let's see... Intermittent Explosive disorder, correct? And a few cases of self harm... Well, that's no good, now is it. But with the first issue, can you tell me why you always feel so much anger? If it is anger, that is. What sets you off? What kind of things trigger you?"

Karkat scoffed at him. "It's assholes and nooksuckers like you who set me off! Always with questions, judging me, poking and prodding like I'm some kind of psychedelic fucking freak-out weasle being tested to see how far you can push it until it explodes or dies or just can't take it anymore, and it just make me want to perforate the center of my forehead with a pneumatic drill, deep into the heart of my thinkpan where all the secretes of my suffering and sorrow are store." Karkat started to lose it, as something within his brain snapped. The doctor didn't stop him, he just sat there and wrote scribbled a few notes in his files. Karkat noticed this, stopped, and settled back down into hist chair, crossing his arms. He glared at the doctor, and muttered a few curse words under his breath.

"Now, Karkat, have you found the root of your anger?" The doctor asked, as he flipped through Karkat's files, looking for a specific page.

Karkat paused before saying "No." He stared at the ground, averting 's gaze.

"May I ask you a question, Karkat?"

"… Sure, why the fuck not."

"What is your blood colour?" He asked. Karkat immediately sprung back. "In your files, both psychological and medical, there is no evidence of any blood testing, or anything indicating your blood colour at all. Is it something you're ashamed of? Is it something that causes you grief? You wear your symbol in gray on your shirt, is this indicating that you want to conceal your blood colour?" Karkat didn't answer, but he was getting nervous. "You seem like a very smart young boy, but you also seem insecure and unsure of yourself. Perhaps, your constant readiness to insult and belittle others is a defense mechanism. You want to seem strong and sure of yourself, so others don't question how you really feel. Truly, you might be ashamed of something. Maybe that's why you've hurt yourself? Is that why you always seem so angry?" The doctor paused.

"Are people afraid of you? Are you afraid of yourself? Before coming here, were people mean to you? Were your parents mean to you? You seem so used to pain, you're just sitting there while I say all these things about you. Are these things true, do they bother you?"

Karkat stood there, completely aghast. Everything the doctor had said was true. He was ashamed of himself, and he hated himself. His anger had always been a manner of self defense. But Karkat wouldn't admit it. Instead, he conceal all emotion, staring at the floor with his fists clenched.

"What do you know about me?" He said, after a beat. "What do you know about anyone here? You think you can just waltz in here once a Perigee and act like you understand us?" He stood up. "You think that you know everything about me after meeting me once in your whole goddamn life?! Shut up, because you don't know a goddamn thing about who I am or what any of my problems are!" He turned towards the door. "Are we done here?"

"Just a few more questions." The doctor said. "This reaction tells me that everything I said just now was true. Am I right?"

Shocked and annoyed, Karkat didn't want to give the satisfaction of an answer. He felt sadness and repressed emotions creeping up on him.

"Why, you seem as though you're about to cry. Please," he took a green handkerchief out of his pocket. "Take this, it's quite alright," He said, handing the handkerchief to Karkat.

"Shove it!" Karkat growled. "I, I..." He couldn't think of a sufficient comeback. For the first time, a doctor had actually understood the root of Karkat's problems, without Karkat having to say a word about it. He turned around, and stormed out of the room, trying his best to suppress the bright red tears from streaming down his face. He went to his room, where he wanted to close the blinds and sleep until his life was over.

(AN: Wow that turned out hella angsty. I might be breaking the chapters into two halves, just because a whole day with all the details and rants I want to add will be SUPER HELLA LONG.

I told myself that I would finish the first chapter today because it's easter and also 4/20 happy easter everyone blaze it and praise it.

Also, despite never having watched frozen, I constantly imaging Karkat singing "Conceal don't feel, don't let it show" or whatever the words are someone please draw me this beautiful crossover fanart/AN)


End file.
